Comment DBCC-7989

Thank you for your work to date.

I believe that you have struck the best possible balance with your Initial Proposals. Given your statutory requirements, it is inevitable that some constituencies will be very large, and I believe that you have made the best possible pairings in the circumstances you face. I support your Initial Proposals in their entirety.

Your pairings in North Wales appear to fall out naturally from your need to pair Ynys Mon with Bangor Aberconway, given your understanding of what 'contiguous' means, and I fear that any other decision would potentially leave your recommendations vulnerable to judicial review.

I support your pairing of Brecon, Radnor, Neath and Swansea East, since the Cwm Tawe area has already been placed in the same consituency as Brecon and Radnor by the parliamentary boundary commission. Given that, the fact that the Cwm Tawe area clearly has close ties with Neath and reasonably close ties with Swansea East, strongly militates in favour of the pairing which you have proposed.

Valleys link communities together, whereas the hills between valleys separate them. Consequently, I applaud you for generally linking valleys constituencies north-south in your pairing, particulary where the valleys are longest in south-east Wales. For example, the Taff and Cynon valleys link Merthyr and Aberdare respectively down to Pontypridd and the Ebbw valley links Newport and Islwyn. Thank you for respecting this and the consequent local and community ties.

I also support your Cardiff pairings. The transport links between Cardiff West and Cardiff South and Penarth are very good through the A4232. Conversely, the links between Cardiff South and Penarth and Cardiff East are relatively poor due to the non-dualled Rover Way pinch point. The river Taff also forms a natural and culturally resonant boundary to separate the two Cardiff pairings you have in my view correctly initially proposed.

I very much hope that you will stick with your sensible and well thought through Initial Proposals.

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NB: I have given you my address for reference and not for publication.

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